MANCHESTER ' LURRY ' HORSES. 77 



sole, or heel of its foot, as a result of travelling 

 barefoot.' 



I have already mentioned the effect of the safety 

 pad, and a fortiori of the frog upon ice. But icy 

 roads are only to be found in winter time, and that 

 not in every year. I believe that in the winter of 

 1883-4 there was no ice in the streets of London, 

 England seeming to have sent her share of ice and 

 snow to America, where I was staying from October 

 1883 to April 1884. 



Still, many of our roads present /surfaces which, 

 under certain conditions, are nearly as sRppery as 

 ice, even in the warm weather, and on which even 

 a man, who has neither a weight to carry nor a load 

 to draw, can hardly keep his footing. Manchester, 

 for example, in dull, misty weather has a faculty of 

 producing, in combination with smoke, a sort of 

 greasy mixture, which feels to the feet as if the road 

 and pavement had been coated with lard. This 

 greasincss is fearfully trying to horses, especially to 

 the magnificent animals which draw the great 

 ' lurries.' In spite of the deep calks and toe pieces 

 with which their shoes are armed, and which make 

 them look as if they were walking on pattens, they 

 slip and slide about in a most pitiful manner, the 

 terror which they are suffering being too plainly 

 visible in the expression of their eyes. 



